MacHEADS on CNN and BBC NEWS

Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the original Macintosh, the first personal computer to draw masses, introduce the mouse and incorporate a graphical user interface, relying on images instead of text. CNN and BBC News featured MacHEADS as drawing some very interesting insights about the Mac and the devoted community.

CNN - “Speaking of worship, filmmakers Ron and Kobi Shely created “MacHEADS: The Movie,” a 50-minute documentary that’ll be available next week on Amazon’s video on demand service and, soon after, on iTunes. The film includes footage from The Church of Mac in Los Angeles, where a preacher and congregants gathered to glorify the computer at a service that ended with, “Praise Steve.”

“Although we read a lot about the [Mac] phenomenon,” Ron Shely said by phone from Tel Aviv of the two-year film project, “we didn’t realize how big this social movement really is.”

BBC News had featured our first trailer and gave us a whole segment
Central to the success of the Mac has been the community that has supported Apple through the good times and the bad. That included the years when the company was written off as having lost its way and the ink on one of its many obituaries was all but dry.

“There is a certain vindication that we believed in the Mac way back when and now its cool and accepted as a standard,” said Raines Cohen of the Berkeley Macintosh Users Group, one of the largest in the country.

“It does feel like the Mac community has been a part of that success. We were there during the darker times.”

The makers of MacHEADS, a movie about the Mac community, said there is a downside to this 25th anniversary.

“The movie explores everything from the early days to the current days but it ends on a sad note reminiscing on the possible end of the Mac community,” said director and producer Kobi Shely.

“This is driven by the uncaring attitude of Apple. Steve Jobs is away from Apple at the moment, they are leaving Macworld and announcing they have their stores and online to reach people and now the community is left by itself.

“I think Apple should think twice if they really want to dump the thousands of people who are devoted to the company and who are passionate in a way you just don’t normally see,” said Mr Shely.

Mr Cohen disagrees but admitted that some of that sentiment was aired at the recent Macworld Expo in San Francisco earlier this month after Apple announced it would no longer take part.

“Macworld was our place and Apple came here and now they are not but I don’t feel left behind.

“This is an opportunity for the community to take control of that environment without Apple. It’s evolution. It’s progression,” claimed Mr Cohen.